Java’s Islamist Justice – Acquitted But Kept in Jail!

One of the prisoners of conscience – only one, but better than none – that Indonesia’s been holding — has been acquitted, but does that mean he’s free?

Not a chance, in East Java!

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The man,Tajul Muluk, was accused of ‘blasphemy!’

Here. that means you’ve upset the local Islamist bigots.

===================

Tajul, Illegally Imprisoned

============

“Authorities at Sidoarjo prison say that it is normal to detain prisoners after the legal basis for detention has expired.,,.

Tajul, a Shia Muslim, thus not the sort of Muslim whose religious liberties are countenanced by Sunni sectarians, originally got two years at Sampang District Court in July. The crime was to preach and pray according to Shia rites.

His lawyer, Asfinawati, has submitted Justice and Basic Human Rights Ministerial Decree No. 01/2011 on acquittal. This obliges wardens to turn loose any inmate whose term or extension period of detention is over. If the warden refuses to release the prisoner, he can face administrative sanctions.

—————

Asfinawati

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

“But they don’t care and remain firm in detaining Tajul,” said Asfinawati.

Asfinawati is a top lawyer with the LBH, the Legal Aid Institute, so she can’t be surprised that they don’t care – her client’s a member of a minority religion – a ‘heretic.’

‘Heretics’ are undeserving, of either consideration or respect. Does Asfi really think Islamists care about Indonesia’s Constitution?

The matter has been reported to the Law and Human Rights deputy minister, the National Commission on Human Rights and the East Java Justice and Human Rights Office.

———————

So what’s keeping President SBY from telling them to let this man go free? He was quick to rush to the podium at the UN and appeal for an end to free speech, in the wake of Islamist tantrums over that silly film.

—————————

——————————-

Now, in his own realm, there’s a citizen of Indonesia held without due cause purely because of his religion.

Read this informative piece in Tempo http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2012/09/13/055429354At the provincial level, the edict on Shia heresy enjoyed a legal umbrella when Governor of East Java Soekarwo issued Gubernatorial Regulation No.55/2012 in July. According to Surabaya’s Kontras Coordinator, Andi Irfan Djunaidy, the regulation confirmed the East Java MUI edict announced six months earlier that the Shia group is heretical.

=

East Java Governor Soekarwa
=

Will SBY rush to a podium in Surabaya, the provincial capital of East Java?

Will he demand that Governor Soekarwa and the local authorities and police there confront the bigotry in Sampang, where as many as 220 victims of the riot are still at the shelter and have been there since the attacks took place on Aug. 26.

They are the victims of a sectarian pogrom instigated by clerics. Easy to sort that out. Just return them to their homes, arrest any fanatics likely to cause problems, and station a couple of police patrols in the vicinity.

Why should he have to negotiate with clerics, many of whom are so devoid of humanity that they are the problem, not the solution.

It’s the provincial government and the police who have a duty to enforce the law. Any ignorant cleric who gets in the way should be taken into custody.

PS Last time I posted on the Sampang situation. one of my critics complained that I didn’t highlight the inter-family dispute involved in the events.

My link to Tempo gives info on that, but the whole point surely is that the man is in jail. His uptight rels didn’t put him there, nor are they keeping him there. It’s the entire state apparatus doing so, on the outrageous grounds that he’s a religious dissenter.